This briefing paper summarises milestones of effective aid and development cooperation made in the last decade, lists the most important commitments made at the Busan aid effectiveness meeting and makes recommendations on the work and priorities of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation.

Working through local partner Yayasan Pendidikan Usaha Mandiri (YAPUM), Oxfam is encouraging a sweet potato renaissance in the highlands of Jayawijaya District, Papua. By equipping subsistence farmers with new skills, the Ubi Jalar project is building stronger local economies, reinforcing the use of a traditional crop, helping crop diversification and playing a critical role in enhancing the region’s food security.

EU biofuel mandates, a subsidy to big business that could cost every adult about €30 each year by 2020, deprive millions of people of food, land and water. EU governments have it within their power to make a difference to the lives of millions of hungry people. It’s time to scrap EU biofuel mandates.

Pacific Island peoples are already feeling the effects of climate change. Living in one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate impacts, Pacific communities face no option but to adapt if they are to build a resilient future. But adaptation poses different challenges from aid programmes and the delivery of public services.

Futures prices for food staples rise by 50% as droughts hit harvests. The world is battling a record number of food-related emergencies and facing US$4.1bn funding shortfall. Millions of the world’s poorest people will face devastation from today’s rocketing food prices because the global food system is fatally flawed and policy-makers can’t find the courage to fix it. Policy-makers have taken cheap food for granted for nearly 30 years. Those days are gone.

Did you know that 90 per cent of the global grain trade is controlled by just four companies? Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus – collectively referred to as "the ABCD companies" – are central to the modern agri-food system. This report considers the ABCDs in relation to several global issues pressing on agriculture: the "financialization" of both commodity trade and agricultural production; the emergence of global competitors to the ABCDs, in particular from Asia; and some of the implications of large-scale industrial biofuels.

Every time you open your fridge and food cupboards, you step into the global food system. Sounds odd, but it’s true. The system is an enormously complex web of all the people, businesses, organisations and governments involved in the production, distribution, sale and consumption of food. Irrespective of who we are, or where we are on the planet, the food we eat is made available by this global food system.